UPDATE: Reader Julie Geron wrote Porky a note May 11 indicating that this particular pothole was repaired by the City within a week of the original post. Here’s the updated photo; note that the immediate problem was repaired quickly, but there are still a lot of problems on that stretch of Abrams.

Porky Pothole St. Thomas May 18, 2016

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ORIGINAL POST AND PHOTO:

Abrams and Kenwood pothole 5.5.16

Reader Julie Geron helped Porky locate today’s troublesome pothole.

As Geron told Porky: “I hit a really bad pothole today on Abrams Road heading south right after the Kenwood light in front of the parking spots by St. Thomas. I hit it so hard, it knocked part of my bumper off (tow hook cover). Luckily, I saw the piece fly through the air, and I circled back and found it.”

The pothole Geron describes is typical of that run on Abrams: Rather than actually repair the damaged street, a few years ago the City just put an extra layer of asphalt over it, creating what a few years later is a layered-cake problem. Particularly in the right lane where the “new” asphalt is elevated an inch or two over the existing cement curb, asphalt oozes outward (just check out the photo), creating divots, crevasses and uneven paving.

This particular pothole is about four feet long and a couple of feet wide, and even though there’s no actual “pothole”, the uneven asphalt creates the same car-jarring bump if you hit it just right with a low-bumper car. For whatever reason, this stretch of Abrams south of Kenwood to the bottom of the hill just about always has something bad going on — water leaks, potholes, uneven pavement.

As always, we’ve reported this pothole to the City’s 311 online portal; the report number is 16-00202487, if you want to follow along. The City’s portal promises a response to the initial report in three days, with a service followup five days later.